Targeting the self-published author

Daily Archives: May 10, 2014

“Since this morning, I now have 6 retaliation ratings on one book, just for having an opinion. No readers. Just ratings that don’t actually matter, with no names attached. I know exactly whose doing it. Karma is a bigger bitch than me. If you can’t handle the truth that pre-rating is corrupt, then get over it.” May 7, Suzanne Dome

Oh, honey, almost everybody is a bigger bitch than you are and smarter, too.

I can’t imagine that little, old educated you has no clue what has happened. Could it be that you aren’t quite as smart as you want us to think you are? Suzie sounds a tad upset.

Suzie, if the ratings don’t actually matter why are you mentioning them? Pre-rating is corrupt? Why, because it’s allowed? Because those ratings are one star? Bet you wouldn’t be having this cow over five star pre-ratings. And speaking of cows, this is what a lot of people took away from your “slightly snarky” vid.

That’s right, Suzie, a big, steaming pile of BS.

Protest all you want but there was no “slightly snarky” vibe about your vid. I don’t think you meant to be snarky and if you did, by some slight chance, you failed miserably.

“Authors are not the intellectual property of the readers. We are independent of each other and choose to interact.” May 7, S. Dome. This is good because if you were my property I would have just donated you to the city for landfill. You got some interaction you don’t like, boo-freaking-hoo. You talk one game, you play a different one entirely.

You took some of your stuff down, why? Because there were good reasons for doing it? Could you be specific, give it in one of those critiques you find necessary before you pay attention to what someone is telling you. You weren’t at all specific so I have no idea whether you were right or wrong and so I’ll ignore it except to say that if you feel you were right you need to own your words, your opinion. Isn’t that the battle cry right now?

Stand tall behind your words. Unless you’re a writer, then use a pseudonym or socks or better yet, both. Funny, I thought writers were the ones who stood behind their words. Not us, the unprofessional reviewers/bloggers. No, we are not worthy of attention, our opinions should be ignored. So why aren’t you ignoring?

What did you think was going to happen when you made that video? In the hostile climate between authors and readers/reviewers today, what did you think was going to happen? Be specific. Give me examples, don’t focus on just one thing. If you keep harping on one thing then I know you didn’t understand the reaction, you weren’t smart enough. And, honey, you weren’t smart enough.

You think it is funny that people took it seriously? You still giggling? You aren’t at all smart.

So you called out someone for a one star rating and because they didn’t use their real name. You aren’t anywhere near smart. Smart is one town over and you can’t find your way off your front lawn.

There are many, many reasons people do not use their real names, some of them have absolutely nothing to do with you hard as that is for you to believe. Some have professional reasons- now are you sure you just didn’t call Stephen King a coward? Some have security reasons, read this and this or any number of other online articles or maybe even a book or several. If you can’t think of any reason anyone would prefer not to put their real name on the net besides being a “cowardly troll” after reading up a little then you are not worth our time.

“This morning, some kind person told me that they’ve been witnessing this black-labeling for some time, and built a “recovery” level to put books in that have been troll-marked, and give them high marks to even-out the average again. I’m not sure this will help, but it was interesting to see someone doing something about it.” May7, Suzanne Dome.

That’s called gaming the system. Good move. You don’t like those ratings because you shit on readers/reviewers and they expressed their displeasure by saying they aren’t going to ever read your books. Hey, that’s an informed opinion. I won’t read Vox Day or Orson Scott Card because I don’t like their opinions either. You are in such good company.

“If you have an opinion, be attached to it.” May 7, Suzanne Dome. Yes, I (we) do, so why are you complaining? You are the one taking down your opinions just because your opinions made some of us decide not to read your books. How chicken-shit is that? Guess that book rating is far more important than your opinion?

And then you whiiiiine some more. Damn.

This guy is more attractive than you are.

You are amazed that people use the rating system to leave themselves notes on what they want or don’t want to read. You are amazed that they and their friends look at covers and read the excerpts and decide yes or no. You never read the blurb and the first couple of pages and put the book back on the shelf? Never? Ever? You never told your BFF that the new book you both were looking forward to started out sucking Nile water and you had better things to read? Now that’s amazing.

I don’t believe you.

Then you go and say a one star rating meant the reader read your book and it sucked. No, SuzieQ, it meant whatever they wanted it to. It’s a rating, not a review. A rating. There is a big difference. I know you find that hard to understand so maybe you can find a friend who can use pictures and small words to help you.

Then you say you checked out a bunch of the reviewers who were unhappy with you and they weren’t writers and didn’t read the right books. Isn’t this part of what got you into trouble in the first place? And if they/we don’t matter then why are you still whiiining? You just have . Absolutely. No. Fucking. Clue.

And I don’t think you ever will.

” One person was so personally offended by me calling out low-raters who hide, you could feel the drenching sarcasm on their vicious comments. Of course, no one could admit that they missed the point. It’s my right as an author to write. You don’t have to read it. You also have to consider that I knew what the potential consequences would be of posting something opinionated. People are so easily inflamed right now, and a problem in the book world is this “pre-rating” and “author black-listing” because one or two people are offended by that author’s opinion.” May 7, Suzanne Dome.

There was a point? Oh, wait, it was that if the review, excuse me, critique wasn’t in the accepted (by you) format, didn’t include notes to help the writer, didn’t come from someone in a writing or writing-related profession then just ignore them. No, we didn’t miss any of your points, SuzieQ.

Yes, you haz the right to write-anything. We haz the right to ignore it and give it a one star rating. Now you are saying that your vid wasn’t “slightly snarky”, it was an opinion piece. Make up your mind. Are people easily inflamed right now? Of course, I see it so clearly, what else could you do but make this particular video right now. Timing is everything. Good judgment, good timing, you don’t have either.

“Pre-rating is just a way of being a vindictive asshole. Pre-rating doesn’t help anyone.” May 7, Suzanne Dome. You know, I still think you wouldn’t say that if the rating was five stars. Everywhere I post there is a list of what the stars mean and what the ratings can be used for, just because you don’t agree with them or have fallen afoul of reviewers who do know the rules and use them, is your little problem and no one else’s.

“Whether you like my book or not, you are still people that I know.” May 7, Suzanne Dome. No, Suzie, you don’t know us at all and we don’t want to know you. So to make sure we don’t accidentally end up with one of your books we’ll just add a one star and shelve on our “never-ever” shelves because that’s what the rules allow us to do.

One last thing, stop calling yourself a bitch, you are giving us a bad name.

Authors- some of them just don’t quite get it and maybe never will. Pity them. Let’s talk about Suzanne Dumb, uh, Dome. Here she is giving us all the benefit of her expertise . Almost 17 minutes of it, my, my, she is an expert on something, isn’t she?

First of all, Suzanne, clean off your counters. All that stuff in the background is distracting.

Whoa! Whose thoughts actually matter? Oh, Suzanne, Suzanne, Suzanne, don’t do it. Don’t say it. Yes, it is your opinion and you can have it and say it, you just have to be able to accept what happens next. Something you have demonstrated that you can’t do.

According to Suzanne a review is a casual statement of opinion, can sometimes be educated and make references to other things. Like what things? She doesn’t say. A review is usually a not well formatted, uneducated thing. Of course it is. Suuure. And poor, widdle Suzie has no idea why so many people are upset by her vid?

A good review can help your sales. Not necessarily, Suzie, but you just cling to that belief. And a bad review? Well, according to our widdle Suzie you gotta research that reviewer and if they are a professional, and I guess only then and what is a professional Suzie hasn’t told us her expert opinion on that, then you need to look at your writing.

A critique, wait, no more on reviewing? Is that it? Maybe. Anyway, a critique is an educated thing, too. Suzie learned to do these in college. Too bad common sense, good judgment, and the ability to win friends and influence people were not on the curriculum.

Lord help us, especially Suzie, who now manages to dig a deeper hole and we are at 3:30. She keeps using the word educated like it’s something that most of us lack. Everything is educated. Except those reviewers that didn’t like her book(s). Forget them.

Okay, now Suzie is saying that if the reviewer talks about one specific, or “random” accoeding to Suzie, piece of the book to focus on then they either didn’t read the book or didn’t understand it. Did I get that right, Suzie? Is it because they don’t have enough education?

And at 4:12 Suzie does just exactly what most of us uneducated people know not to do. She states that sometimes reviewers miss the point of the book because they are not smart enough. This is a problem with the “coddled” generations, the ones younger than her. Thank God, I am definitely older (and much wiser) than Suzie. I was beginning to take offense by what she was saying but now that I know it’s only the younger reviewers I can relax.

Coddled sissies who got too much attention when you did stuff that wasn’t even that great, listen up.

Now Suzie is telling us who is an “educated” reviewer. It is not the “stay at home mom” blogger, evidently those bloggers are not “educated” enough to be a help.

At this point I have to wonder, is “educated” a euphemism for all those who give her books a four or five star review? It sure sounds like that because 6:32 into this and Dumb Dome hasn’t even alluded to the unhelpful five star reviews.

Paid reviewers are bad, reviewers who concentrate on one thing are bad. Reviewers who point out all your mistakes so you can fix them are free editors good. Got that, stay at home moms? Disregard the uneducated rest.

Her definition of a good reviewer, and she knows this because she attended the workshops, includes the reviewer reading or even rereading the book, is not someone looking for something to fill their spare time in the summer months, not reviewing out of your genre preference because reading out of your preference biases you against the book, should have a professional writing background, and now I need a new sentence. Or paragraph.

Because according to our widdle educated Suzie if you are getting four and five star reviews and suddenly a three pops up it’s because they don’t like your genre or you don’t write in a fashion they can understand. They don’t understand cause they are uneducated.

Now are widdle Suzie is not going to let reviews get in her way, no, not at all. That’s why this vid is 16:54 minutes long. She is a good writer, she knows this. She is a bitch. Bless your heart, SuzieQ, you is a Chihuahua.

I am a bitch.

This is my reaction to your whiiiiining.

Ignore any review that isn’t well written, guess why. They be stupid. These reviews happen to her friends.

Uh-huh.

You get a poor review, research that reviewer, if they are “professional” and “educated” maybe you can use them in the future but most of your reviews will probably come from your average reader. You know, the ones who pay for your books but aren’t educated enough to be of use, just ignore them.

And they will ignore you. “Take it seriously when it comes out of an educated mouth.” Crap on a cracker, SuzieQ, do you hear anything that is coming out of your dumbass mouth?

If you are going to read Suzie’s books, and how many are by now, then she proceeds to tell you she wants a certain type of critique. This is her educated definition of a good reviewer. No other reviewers need apply. Go away, Suzie doesn’t need you. Just buy her books and keep quiet. My God, what if her friends found out uneducated, average readers bought and read her books. The humiliation!

Don’t be an asshole, make sure your review is specific so the writer knows what the problems are. Help the poor writer for free. Buy the book, critique the book, edit the book. Don’t bash it. Fix it. It’s your responsibility as a reviewer. Critique don’t review.

Suzie is educated and she can tell which reviews/critiques are worthy. She hopes you will take heed of her educated advice.

Young readers beware of the “bad” review. If you can’t tell the difference or are unsure you can contact Suzie, she knows.

She has been thinking about how she wanted to rant about this since December. I find that part fascinating. She has been thinking since December how she could make herself sound like a total idiot, excuse me, a total educated idiot?

Suzie, your head is so far up your ass it’s amazing to me that the crap around your eyes is blue not brown.

Crazy quilts are unique and innovative quilts created from scraps of materials. My hope is for a world that uses all the scraps, rough cut diamonds and hidden treasures. I blog to make IPOC authors and their works more accessible.